Rubicon Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
136Developed by Twisted Minds and published by 21st Century Entertainment in 1991.
Loading Music: 0:00
Title Screen: 5:50
Game Start: 10:00
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When it comes to writing these reviews, I sometimes find that I've played a game that leaves me struggling for words, not because it was particularly great or nauseatingly bad, but because it failed to leave any kind of impression on me; this is Rubicon for the C64.
The game's story involves a Soviet nuclear power station going super-critical and dispersing lethal amounts of radiation into the atmosphere with dire consequences for the population of most nations on the planet. The radiation has caused severe mutations in organic lifeforms and has made the world a dangerous place to live.
The worlds governments have discovered stockpiles of nuclear weaponry laying abandoned in the fall-out zones. Fearing that the mutant creatures would find them and use them for their own ends, you have been dispatched to locate the weapons and stabilise them.
Despite the back-story, the actual game is a very basic horizontally scrolling shoot'em up. The player constantly moves to the right whilst shooting waves of enemies that occasionally vary in attack patterns until the level ends.
The game is broken down into five levels, each with a distinct graphical theme and unique monsters to kill. There's no denying the fact that the game is graphically impressive, as the mutants themselves are huge, highly detailed and generally look great. Some appear to be original designs, others based on prehistoric creature, whilst some are blatantly plagiarised from other sources; H.R. Geiger's famous Alien designs feature with a face-hugger and Alien Queen featuring in two of the levels. Rubicon certainly isn't the only game to have taken inspiration from films and visual media, but it felt like this was more blatant than other titles and only serves to cheapen the feel of the game.
One thing that remained prominent throughout the game was the absence of alternative weapons. Either I completely missed them or there is a genuine lack of guns. The single-shot weapon the player is equipped with is more than capable of destroying all of the enemies in the game, but it would have been nice to have had some variety.
Occasionally, the game attempts to change things up by adding a jet-pack, or the ability to ride a strange fire-breathing Griffon-like creature on the second level, but these have little influence on the gameplay and occur far too infrequently to leave any lasting impression.
Whilst recording, I encountered strange glitches that made certain copies of the game unbeatable. One disk-based version had a bug on the third level that resulted in instant death for no reason. The tape version I ended up using to record the video had a glitch on the fourth level where the flying platform refused to fly close enough to allow me to jump on to it. Having sacrificed myself by jumping into the hole, the platform position reset and it then moved sufficiently for me to cross the gap and to continue the game.
The final level of the game is slightly more engaging as you attempt to enter the bunker where the nuclear stockpile is located. Having survived a cave-in, you must run from a lethal lava flow before diving into an underground lake to survive. Unfortunately, the game gives you no indication that you must waggle the joystick from side to side to swim, thus avoiding the huge man-eating beast lurking just below the surface.
One of the positive aspects of the game is the music, courtesy of Jeroen Tel from Maniacs of Noise. I have tried to include a full loop of the loading and title music arrangements before launching into the actual game.
Despite the glossy presentation, Rubicon failed to leave a lasting impression on me due to the fleeting use of certain mechanics, short levels and general feeling of disjointedness. What is on offer generally works as expected and the shooting mechanics and character controls are solid enough, but games such as Turrican and Flimbo's Quest easily outclass this in terms of gameplay.
Rubicon isn't a terrible game, but it won't be one that you'll think much about once you stop playing.
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